Previous Shortlists

2024 Winner
Kate Fullagar – Margeurite Wolters
2024 Shortlist
Carolyn Dowley – Sadie Canning
Charlie Ward – Jean Zakariah
Erik Jensen – Rafael Bonachela and the Sydney Dance Company
Helen Trinca – Elizabeth Harrower
Jane McCredie – Jane Eastment
Michelle Scott Tucker – Louisa Lawson
Sophie Cull – Calvin Duncan
Suzanne Robinson – Becoming Modern, about Australian women composers

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2023 Winner
Diane Bell – The Queen and The Protector
2023 Shortlist
Belinda Probert – Secrets and War, about Bill Probert
Aunty Elly Chatfield – The Shape of Your Hair, memoir of a Gamillaroi woman
Charlie Ward – Jean Zakariah/Culley
Gabrielle Carey – Alex Carey
Jo Oliver – Yvonne Boyd
Jane McCredie – Jane Eastment
Carolyn Dowley – Sadie Canning
Susan Wyndham – Elizabeth Harrower

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2022 Winner
Naomi Parry Duncan – Musquito
2022 Shortlist
Sylvia Martin – Eirene Mort and Nora Kate Weston (Highly Commended)
Kelly Gellatly – Rosalie Gascoigne
Michelle Nayahamui Rooney – Nahau Rooney
Melanie Duckworth – Christobel Mattingley
Lorin Clarke – John Clarke
Mark Mordue – Nick Cave
Aunty Joy Murphy and Jessica Horton – Jarlo Wandoon
Hannah Fink – Rosalie Gascoigne

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2021 Winner
Mandy Sayer – McDonagh Sisters
2021 Shortlist
Jo Oliver – Adelaide Perry
Kate Rice – Marian Dunn and Marian Marcus Clarke
Jillian Graham – Margaret Sutherland
Sheila Ngoc Pham – Anne Spencer Parry
Michelle Scott Tucker – Aaron Fa’Aoso
Amanda Lourie – AW Howitt

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2020 Winner
Lance Richardson – Peter Matthiessen
2020 Shortlist
Madelaine Dickie – Wayne Bergman
Suzanne Robinson – Decadent Melbourne in the 1890s
Gabrielle Carey – Elizabeth Von Arnim (Highly Commended)
Tegan Bennett Daylight – Ruth Park
Stephenie Cahalan – Jean Belette
Shakira Hussein – Nine Eleven-itis
Diane Bell – The Queen (Louisa Karpany) and the Protector (George Mason)
Margo Beasley – Eric Dark

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2019 Winner
Eleanor Hogan – Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates
2019 Shortlist
Diana James – Nganyinytja
James Boyce – Governor Lachlan Macquarie
Gabrielle Carey – Elizabeth Von Arnim
James Mairata – Hal McElroy
Stephenie Cahalan – Jean Belette
Brigitta Olubas – Shirley Hazzard
Maggie Tonkin – Meryl Tankard

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2018 Winner
Jacqueline Kent – Vida Goldstein
2018 Shortlist
Cath Bishop – Annie Lock
Clem Gorman – David Rankin
Jillian Graham – Margaret Sutherland
Diana James – Nganyinytja
Drusilla Modjeska – First Half Second, memoir (Special Award)
Andrew Ramsay – Sir Mark Oliphant and Ernest Rutherford
Judith White – Colin Lancely

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2017 Winner
Ann-Marie Priest – Gwen Harwood
2017 Shortlist
Peter Edwards – Robert Marsden Hope
Thornton McCamish – Robert Hughes
Craig Munro – Literary Lions
Judith Pugh – William Dargie
Suzanne Spunner – Rover Thomas (Highly Commended)
Terri-Ann White – Fiona Stanley

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2016 Winner
Matthew Lamb – Frank Moorhouse
2016 Shortlist
Shannon Burns – Gerald Murnane
Philip Dwyer – Napoleon Bonaparte
Kitty Hauser – Geoffrey Bardon
Eleanor Hogan – Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates
Sharon Huebner – Bessy Flowers
Jacqueline Kent – Sir Robert Helpman
Alec O’Halloran – Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri
Jeff Sparrow – Paul Robeson

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2015 Winner
Caroline Baum – Lucie Dreyfus
2015 Shortlist
Patrick Allington – David Malouf
Barry Divola – Jeremy Oxley (Sunnyboys)
Lyn Gallacher – Discurio
Naomi Parry – Musquito
Ann-Marie Priest – Gwen Harwood
Ronnie Scott – Agatha Christie’s travels
Biff Ward – Vietnam Mon Amour

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2014 Winner
Maxine Beneba Clarke – The Hate Race, memoir
2014 Shortlist
Lesley Harding and Kendrah Morgan – John and Sunday Reed
Rodney James – Allan McCulloch
Sylvia Martin – Amy Witting
Michelle Potter – Dame Margaret Scott
Ruth Starke – Don Dunstan
Warren Ward – Seven philosophers
Nadia Wheatley – Nina Watkin

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2013 Winner
Stephany Steggall – Thomas Kenneally
2013 Shortlist
Lisa Milner – Freda Brown
John Murphy – Ray Triado
Helen O’Neill – Max Dupain
Sheridan Palmer – Bernard Smith
Ann-Marie Priest – Ruth Park
Elizabeth Taylor – Maud, Lady Selborne

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2012 Winner
Mary Hoban – Julia Sorell
2012 Shortlist
Patrick Allington – Thea Astley and Beatrice Davis
Martin Edmond – Rex Battarbee and Albert Namatjira
Anne Houen – Fairbridge Farm School
Heather Long – Claire Adams
Christopher Pash – Bob Hunter
Sally Percival Wood – Pete Steedman
Loretta Smith – Alice Anderson
Michelle Tucker – Elizabeth Macarthur